A NEW documentary on Russian strongman Vladimir Putin reveals he was branded a drunken groper during his time as a KGB spy by his Soviet masters.

He was also prepared to shoot unarmed protestors in East Germany during the peaceful revolution of 1989, underwent a secret facelift in 2010, is "terrified" of growing old and always travels with a personal chef because he is paranoid about being poisoned.

And the programme makers said intelligence sources and documents examined for the programme suggest he has survived five assassination attempts in recent years resulting in his "leadership style with incredible delusions for control."

The German TV company ZDF aired 'Putin the Man' on Tuesday evening, using hitherto secret Stasi secret police files, interviews with former KGB underlings and superiors, and western intelligence sources to build a more rounded picture of the leader whose power-politics threaten the peace of Europe over Ukraine.

After dragging himself up from the slums of St. Petersburg into the ranks of the feared KGB, the programme described him as a "lazy, drunken spy" when he headed the spy agency's field office in Dresden in former East Germany.

One superior noted of his five years in Dresden, between 1985 and 1990; "He was a desktop spy, a macho playing upon a safe stage."

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The Germany TV company ZDF aired 'Putin the Man' on Tuesday evening

A file entry from the time noted how he got inebriated at the birthday party of a friend.

"Mrs. H. remembers that on the birthday party of her father he grabbed her particularly fiercely, hugging and kissing her.

"His colleagues in the KGB spoke about his fondness for hard liqour."

Further documents show that he ordered KGB officers in Dresden to defend their HQ with weapons filled with live ammunition and to fire on peaceful protestors if they approached the building as the East German state collapsed.

His colleagues in the KGB spoke about his fondness for hard liqour

A file entry

In the past Putin has said he never issued such an order.

He dreamed of being sent west to build up and run his own spy network, but his masters in KGB headquarters in Moscow never considered him mature enough for such a job.

The boredom in Dresden seemed to have made Putin also careless.

A neighbour of his told the documentary he once mislaid a bunch of keys - keys to ultra sensitive KGB files - who posted a note on a tree seeking their rightful owner.

One of his biographers told the programme that during the Dresden years he was "fat, lazy and disillusioned."

Putin once boasted that he works like a galley slave for Russia, but the programme suggests otherwise.